Sector support offers
Have your say: Council improvement support
Our sector support programme provides councils with vital tools and support to deliver critical services to communities while helping drive change and improvement across all regions. You can help shape next year's offer by completing our 5 minute survey.
Navigating financial uncertainty and building resilience: Guiding principles
The LGA has published guidance for councils on navigating financial uncertainty and building resilience. Commissioned from EY, the guide is designed predominantly for local authority finance teams, supporting them to work with members and colleagues across the council to plan and manage finances in challenging times.
National recruitment campaign for local government
The National Recruitment Campaign for local government, Make a Difference, Work for your Local Council is due to launch on 4 November 2024. The campaign aims to inspire individuals to explore career opportunities and to make a difference in their community through a career with their local council. The first version of the campaign toolkit has been shared with all councils. The toolkit contains editable versions of the campaign materials for local use. Councils and partners can utilise the free digital resources to promote the campaign in their local area. For more information, please contact makeadifference@local.gov.uk.
Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme
Councils can register interest and sign up to Cohort 27 of Impact (formally NGDP) – the LGA’s flagship graduate scheme which has been introducing fresh talent into the sector for over two decades. The two-year programme attracts and develops the future leaders of local government, placing high-calibre graduates in councils across the country. To find out more, please contact the team by emailing impact@local.gov.uk.
Webinars and digital events
Wednesday 13 November 2024, 12.00pm – 1.15pm
This NALC Make A Change and LGA Be A Councillor event will aim to promote people from a range of backgrounds to stand for election as councillors at all levels of local government.
Thursday 14 November 2024, 10.00am - 12.30pm
This interactive webinar will provide a grounding in what governance and assurance mean, explore principles and good practice, key councillor leadership roles and approaches which will support councils to identify and manage risks related to governance and assurance.
Tuesday 19 November 2024, 10.00am – 11.45am
The roundtable will explore the importance of how councils can collect, collate, and present data to inform initiatives that transform service delivery and outcomes for residents. Following the ‘spotlight on’ presentations, delegates will participate in a roundtable discussion.
Tuesday 3 December 2024, 10.00am - 4.30pm
This full day webinar will provide a grounding in what governance and assurance mean, including the key principles, structures and processes. It will focus on councillor roles and how to identify the warning signs of weak governance and assurance. Small group breakout sessions and in-depth learning exercises will provide time to consider how good assurance works in practice, with a wealth of practical advice, tips and best practice examples.
Wednesday 4 December 2024, 10:00am – 11:45am
The roundtable will focus on how councils can set up and run their PMO function, a growing feature in local authorities which has become a key part of the public sector arsenal in change, transformation, and efficiency programmes. The session will feature ‘spotlight on’ presentations from councils delivering effective programme management office models before progressing into a roundtable discussion.
Are you a councillor or senior council officer who has responsibility for delivering your council's ambitions for delivering net zero, climate adaptation or biodiversity targets? Sign up for one of our Sustainability masterclasses to learn how you can take meaningful action and become carbon literacy accredited, with plenty of opportunities for collaboration, discussion, and support.
Find out more and express your interest in the LGA’s sustainability masterclasses.
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Action needed to address critical shortages in council finance staff
Urgent action is required to tackle significant workforce challenges in local government finance teams, says a new report by CIPFA and the LGA. The ‘Local government finance workforce action plan for England’ outlines four key recommendations to address critical shortages in finance staff across English councils. The LGA and CIPFA will now work together to seek to address the recommendations in the plan, building on existing activities such as support for workforce planning provided by the LGA and the Impact Finance Scheme, currently being piloted in London.
Local Government Challenge 2025
After receiving a high volume of officer applications, a panel consisting of LGA Leadership Officers and The Municipal Journal (The MJ) have now selected the ten officers to take part in the Local Government Challenge 2025. The cohort will be publicly announced in November. Host councils are also confirmed for the programme, with five challenges set to take place between January and May 2025.
New Sustainability Improvement Programme webpages
We have launched our new branding and webpages for the Sustainability Improvement Programme, in partnership and funded through the Crown Commercial Service. Do check out our ‘Get Involved’ pages to see all our latest support offers, as well as ‘Upcoming Events and Roundtables’ to find all the details of our events. Do let us know what you think by emailing sustainability@local.gov.uk.
LGA Innovation Zone – LGA Annual Conference
The LGA’s Innovation Zone again highlighted the strength and imagination of councils in responding to challenges in new and innovative ways. The programme showcased a range of presentations offering learning and inspirational ideas on topics from social services and digital technologies, to public health and workforce.
LG Inform and LG Inform Plus
ONS Local Workshop Series with LG Inform
ONS Local will be hosting a series of workshops on LG Inform in November. The “How to use LG Inform” session provides an introduction for anyone who isn’t yet familiar with LG Inform/LG Inform Plus and will cover what you can do with the tool, and practical demonstrations of how it has been used to produce dashboards by local authorities. The “Build a Power BI Dataflow for LG Inform” sessions will help you leverage the power of your LG Inform Plus data by building an easy-to-use Dataflow in Power BI that delivers API powered results. See links for details:
ONS Local Workshop: How to use LG Inform
Wednesday 13 November,· 9.30 – 11.00am
ONS Local Workshop: Build a Power BI Dataflow for LG Inform Plus Part 1 Wednesday 27 November, 9.30 – 11.00am
ONS Local Workshop: Build a Power BI Dataflow for LG Inform Plus Part 2
Thursday 28 November, 9.30 – 11.00am
Not subscribed to LG Inform Plus? No Problem! Did you know when you register with LG Inform Plus, organisations can access 2GB of data free of charge? We are seeing more and more organisations trying it out and making use of our API. We welcome colleagues experimenting with the service to see if it helps their reporting.
first magazine
Yours faithfully,
Cllr Abi Brown, OBE
Chair, LGA Improvement and Innovation Board
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